{
  "family": "blackmoon",
  "sample_count": 228,
  "category": "banking_trojan",
  "description": "Trojan:Win32/Blackmoon is a classic, highly destructive banking trojan historically notorious for targeting Asian financial institutions, employing aggressive memory scraping and web-injection techniques to steal credentials and authorize fraudulent transactions.<br><br><b>Understanding Blackmoon</b><br>To the victim, a Blackmoon infection often goes unnoticed until massive unauthorized withdrawals appear on their bank statements. For incident responders, Blackmoon represents a severe financial threat. It acts as a Man-in-the-Browser (MitB), silently intercepting the communication between the user's web browser and the banking portal to steal login credentials, circumvent two-factor authentication (2FA), and alter transaction details on the fly.<br><br><b>Execution and Evasion Strategies</b><br>Blackmoon is primarily distributed through targeted malspam campaigns containing malicious ZIP attachments or via compromised watering hole websites. Upon execution, it injects its core DLL payload into browser processes (like <code>iexplore.exe</code>, <code>chrome.exe</code>, or <code>firefox.exe</code>). It establishes persistence via the Registry Run keys. Once injected, Blackmoon uses API hooking (specifically targeting functions like <code>InternetReadFile</code> and <code>HttpSendRequest</code>) to intercept HTTP/HTTPS traffic before it is encrypted by the browser. It then downloads dynamic 'web-inject' configuration files from its C2 server, allowing it to modify the HTML of specific banking sites to prompt users for additional sensitive information (like ATM PINs or mother's maiden name).<br><br><b>Indicators of Compromise & Impact</b><br>The impact is direct and severe financial loss. Threat hunters should investigate EDR alerts related to 'Suspicious Browser Injection' or 'API Hooking Detected'. Network logs will reveal Blackmoon establishing encrypted connections (often using custom RC4) to its C2 infrastructure to exfiltrate stolen credentials and receive updated web-injects. The presence of hidden configuration files in the <code>%AppData%</code> directory is a strong IoC.",
  "cta": "Published by the SystemHelpdesk team.",
  "aliases": [],
  "enrichment_level": "expert-seo",
  "faq": [],
  "faq_count": 0,
  "mitre_attack": [
    "T1055.001",
    "T1105",
    "T1185",
    "T1056.004",
    "T1547.001"
  ],
  "cisa_advisory": null,
  "last_updated": "2026-06-09",
  "mitre_attack_detail": [
    {
      "id": "T1185",
      "name": "Browser Session Hijacking",
      "tactic": "Collection"
    },
    {
      "id": "T1055.001",
      "name": "Process Injection: Dynamic-link Library Injection",
      "tactic": "Defense Evasion"
    },
    {
      "id": "T1056.004",
      "name": "Input Capture: Credential API Hooking",
      "tactic": "Credential Access"
    },
    {
      "id": "T1105",
      "name": "Ingress Tool Transfer",
      "tactic": "Command and Control"
    },
    {
      "id": "T1547.001",
      "name": "Boot or Logon Autostart Execution: Registry Run Keys / Startup Folder",
      "tactic": "Persistence"
    }
  ],
  "containment_steps": [
    "Immediately isolate the endpoint from the network to halt the active exfiltration of banking credentials and prevent fraudulent transactions.",
    "Assist the user in immediately contacting their financial institutions to freeze accounts, block recent transactions, and reset all banking passwords.",
    "Capture a live memory image (RAM dump) to extract the injected Blackmoon DLLs and the downloaded web-inject configuration files.",
    "Perform a clean OS rebuild; banking trojans establish deep, complex hooks that are difficult to fully eradicate manually."
  ],
  "what_to_avoid": [
    "Do not allow the user to access any online banking or financial portals while the machine is infected.",
    "Avoid relying solely on clearing browser cookies or caches; the malware is injected directly into the browser's process memory."
  ],
  "target_industries": [
    "Global / Opportunistic"
  ],
  "motivation": "Opportunistic",
  "threat_actors": [
    "Unknown / Cybercriminal"
  ],
  "target_geographies": [
    "Global"
  ]
}